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The more we hear it, the more anxious we get.
All that raw need!
How can we ignore it?
Its a symphony in the key of anxiety and as it crescendos, Seligman adds the screaming child.
The baby is beside himself!
The baby will not be calmed!
The sound operates like the cannon in the 1812 Overture: Nothing makes you jump like the real thing.
Danielle doesnt know whos dead, but everyone else knows her.
What theydontknow is that shes started to dabble in sex work.
Max cant stop looking worriedly (or speculatively?)
Danielles freak-out accelerates as she learns about Maxs wife, then Maxs baby.
The threat of exposure keeps turning into flirtation; the erotic currents among all three turn into turbulence.
Debbie cant stop wipingshmutzoff her daughters face; Joel bumbles and fumbles as his wife hisses criticisms at him.
He forgets everything, she snipes, ever since the day of their marriage.
Anyone can forget a ring!
he protests, as the camera backs away.
Shiva Babyis the most humid movie youve ever seen.
Which conventions Danielle should break, and which she shouldnt, isnt always clear.
Should she buck against the older peoples clear discomfort with her bisexuality and her romantic past with Maya?
Yes, shove it in their faces; smear it on them like cream cheese.
But Danielles rudeness doesnt seem to have a limit.
After heavy hints from her parents, the accommodating Kim offers Danielle a job, but she demurs.
Im not into the whole girlboss thing, she says, snidely.
Despite Kims presence, she and Max are reckless, each determined to catch the other out.
Being a child is hellish, but the examples of the adults all around her seem even worse.
Youre supposed to grow up … for this?
But for all my desire to look away, I couldnt.
Danielle is a mess shes a bit mean, plenty defensive, reckless, and selfish.
But who among us is not the same?
Shes young, so she hasnt worked out how to modulate all those things out of her voice.
She cries, and it rivets our attention.
All that raw need!
How can we ignore it?
